HCDE 508 [Sean Lemme]
For the first assignment of HCDE 508,
we had to find a way to combine three
letters into a new shape. I chose my
initials, SFL. Once I decided what I
wanted the shape to be, a sort of
fanning effect, I picked a bold serif font
to create it. I like how the heavy lettering
feels molded by the curves of the text. If
I could spend some more time with this
piece, I think I would play with font
weight more, however. The “S” kind of
disappears into the composition, while
the “L” really stands out. I think I could
have found a better middle ground.
For our first layout assignment, we had
to chose text – in my case an email
about a campus event – and establish
its hierarchy. We then had to lay out that
text, using no more than three fonts, in
three different ways; horizontally,
vertically, and diagonally. This diagonal
version was my favorite, because of the
shape I was able to create using the
event’s title and keynote speakers. Little
did I know I’d be using this composition
for the next few weeks.
The first time I revisited the layout
composition, it was to create another
two versions of it. One was to show how
it could be tweaked using lines, and the
other using shapes. I really liked how
the shapes one turned out, especially
how the “WiSE” looked – I had to make
sure that “E” didn’t turn into another
letter or disappear. I also tried do an
inverted effect (on the “Science” at the
top and “Saturday” at the bottom) which
at the time seemed pretty cool. If I could
keep working on this piece, however, I
would probably eliminate that.
The next revision of the layout
assignment was to add a photograph to
the composition, and it was a small
challenge finding a photograph to go
with women in science that was horrid. I
ended up going with a photograph of an
erupting volcano, and tried to give the
piece a sort of 1980s sci fi / science text
book feel. Maybe it could also be a
metaphor for the power and influence of
women in science no longer being
dormant. I made a few versions that
played more with inversion and
transparency, but I think this version,
with big white shapes, turned out the
best.
The last time we edited our layout
compositions was when we added color.
The idea was to use 3-5 colors that not
only went well together, but
complimented the content of the poster.
I made a bunch of new versions, and the
one that everyone liked the most was
this green one. That bright green seems
like a ooze or goo, perhaps the work of
some mad scientist. Hopefully it makes
the event seem fun and inviting too. I
also took this as an opportunity to
slightly revise the shapes I was using,
as I wanted to emphasize that green.
Shepard Fairey’s famous “Andre the
Giant has a Posse” street art campaign
started as a happy accident when he
was teaching a friend how to make
stencils. Similarly, the idea that I could
create roughly the same effect came as
a bit of a surprise while I was playing
with images of my face for the icon
assignment. But once inspiration hit, it
was hard to resist. I’m not as big as
Andre, but I’m something of a giant
myself. And I could swap the ominous,
They Live-inspired “OBEY” for my own
name, which gives it a friendlier, goofier
vibe. Instead of obeying me, let me do
that for you – that sort of thing.
The first webpage I made relied heavily
on my experience designing corporate
responsive Wordpress blogs. This is my
second attempt, and I wanted it to reflect
my experiences in this class working
with layout and color. The leftmost
column is fixed and contains all the
boilerplate information on the website.
The right column can scroll vertically
and features everything in my portfolio
laid out in a strong grid, with some
flexibility in tile sizing. Unlike my first
attempt, on this website I tried to use
many colors to make the site seem more
fun and less businesslike. Every
portfolio image has a mouseover state
which reduces the opacity of the color
overlay, as demonstrated by the “print
media” tile. They all link to individual
pages where the work is available in a
higher resolution with commentary.
For the last assignment of this class, we
had to create something that was
designed to be printed and folded. I
decided to make a papercraft version of
myself, based on the icon I had already
used for the previous couple of
assignments. This is a revision of that
original design that adds in new arm and
neck pieces, as well as additional
information on the actual piece of paper,
so I could theoretically hand this out and
let other people make mini mes.